Givens hit the switch or pushed the plunger for some of the worst killers in state history before going to prison himself in 1999 after being convicted of money laundering for using drug money to buy two vehicles for an old friend who didn’t have a license.
Givens preferred the electric chair to lethal injection, which became the prime mode of execution in 1995.

“You feel more attached” with lethal injection, Givens said. “During an electrocution, it’s a button you push and the machine runs for 45 seconds. You push it again and it runs for another 45 seconds. Lethal injection you’re on the end, pushing a syringe into a line and you’re watching the chemicals go down the line into the condemned’s veins.”